Look who was entertaining the psychobabble bullshit—this fucking guy.
“Does it bother you?” she asked.
Her hair underneath my chin made my skin contract, so I set my face more firmly against her head. “To be honest, it makes all of the hairs stand up on my body. It sounds like a witch cackle.”
“If I were, I’d put all of the people out to harm us under a spell.”
I sighed. “You already do.”
* * *
“Brando?” She blinked at me, all sleepy and warm, and then she ran a hand through my hair. “Can’t sleep?”
“No.”
Sleep had come for an hour, and then I woke up, breathless, heart thundering. I found myself staring at her, watching her while she slept.
“What is it?” she asked.
“You were going to leave me. Or try to.”
“Would you have let me?”
“That’s not the point.”
She came up too fast and my head was in the way. Her head crashed into my forehead and she was knocked down onto her pillow. Her hands went straight to her face.
“I’m fine,” she said after I had asked her five times. “All good—but I’m seeing three of you now. Damn. You have a hard head. I should’ve known.”
“Baby,” I said, kissing her like she liked. Big Italian smooches that jiggled the cheeks. “I didn’t ruin your face, did I?”
She moved her hands and narrowed her watery eyes at me. “What’s that supposed to mean?”
“I love your face the way it is.”
“And if something were to ever happen to it?”
“There’s always your body.”
She cursed at me and then attacked me with her pillow. Once she settled, I kissed her once more, and then we both became quiet. I checked her face once more to be sure she didn’t need ice. Or Tito.
“You are the most mercurial man I’ve ever met,” she said.
“Yeah?”
“Yes. One minute you’re joking around, and the next—” She waved a hand at me in demonstration.
“I wasn’t joking when you first woke up. I was trying to make you smile after your head attacked my forehead. Unfinished business messes with my mind.”
“A hard wall, your head,” she mused. “Did you get the suitcase?”
She asked, but I knew she already knew the answer. I nodded.
“Empty?”
“Yeah.”
“I’m not going anywhere, Brando. That’s why the suitcase was empty—I told you it was a stupid thing to do.”
